Side Quests
by White Mage Koorii
Summary: A collection of small scenes that just wouldn't fit in the main story of Counter Crisis.
1. Bringing Home Baby

**Characters: **Sephiroth centric. Viri.  
**Pairings: **Gen  
**Notes: **Takes place after Chapter 06 "Crisis of Carousing".

**Summary: **Sephiroth's first night as a pet parent doesn't go quite as well as he planned.

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**Bringing Home Baby by White Mage Koorii**

**[ μ ] – εуλ 0001 (December 17th - 18th)**

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**23:00 Midgar Standard Time**

Sephiroth stormed into his apartment and immediately dropped the chocobo chick cradled in his hand—the only grace he gave it was to drop it on the sofa. How _dare _they? His rage was a bitter, impotent fire and it flared in all directions.

How _dare_ that _boy_, that _nothing_, have such impact upon his state of being? How _dare_ he impose himself into Sephiroth's life in such a way?

_How dare he make him dredge up things best left buried?_

A vase shattered against the far wall, and the chick tumbled off the sofa to force itself beneath it, keening shrilly. The fact that the vase was one that Genesis had left in his apartment, delicate scroll lettering wavering down it's side in his _old friend's_ favorite poem meant _nothing._

**23:18**

The chick had yet to stop keening from beneath the sofa as Sephiroth prowled his living room. He'd long since ground the broken shards of the vase into the carpet.

On his next pass he swept the potted plant off of the counter in his kitchenette and let the pot shatter on the tile, spattering soil in every direction.

That meant nothing as well.

The chick shrilled louder.

**23:30 **

Several dishes had been sacrificed to Sephiroth's need to destroy, as had one of the heavy wooden shelves before he'd found himself at the large picture window. He stared out at Midgar's skyline, watching the Sector 5 reactor flare up.

He released a long breath, though the rage still simmered beneath his breast bone. Sephiroth couldn't help but imagine it burning around him, and through the mental exercise he steadied himself once more.

There was no need to be so enraged by things that meant _nothing_. Cloud Strife meant _nothing, _a nobody, a fluke, an accident. There was, could be, nothing special about him. Angeal and Genesis were nothing but traitors to ShinRa, and more importantly, to _him._ And Fair? Fair was just another 1st Class SOLDIER striving to be a hero. After all, if Angeal and Genesis did not matter, then the fact that Fair had seen an end to them—failed to bring them back—did not.

**23:35**

The chick's trilling had become intermittent, but the sound still pierced Sephiroth's head. The splitting headache that had swelled in the wake of the strange encounter with Cloud Strife was no longer suppressed by his rage enough to be ignored. He turned on his heel in a snap of leather and prowled toward the sofa.

Dropping to one knee, Sephiroth leaned down. His long silver hair slithered down his back to pool on the floor as he peered beneath the sofa. The chick stared back at him, beady black eyes gleaming. Sephiroth reached beneath the piece of furniture to grab it. The chick shuffled further back and renewed it's trilling.

**23:40**

His attempts to lure the chick out with food or with word proved useless. In the end, Sephiroth hooked his fingers under the edge of the sofa and lifted the nearest end up...only for the little black chick to scramble across the room and squeeze beneath his materia cabinet.

Frowning after it, Sephiroth dropped the sofa back into place and stood. There was no point in pursuing the issue further. He would leave it to it's own devices.

At least it had gone quiet.

Sephiroth shed his coat and headed for the bathroom.

**24:45**

His return to the living room was heralded by a slight stench and the unsightly image of a pile of bird droppings in the middle of his floor. The first thing he thought was that it was going to stain. The second was that he needed to learn how to bathroom train the little beast.

Tiny claw marks lined in dirt wound around the entire room. He followed the path with his eyes, swirling over the carpet from wall to wall. He would have suspected the chick had purposely gone back to the spilled potting soil if he'd accredited it that much intelligence.

A chirp near his heel drew his attention and Sephiroth looked down. The chick stare up at him with adoring eyes as if his tantrum and its fright had never occurred. It nibbled at his pant leg, one small, cool foot resting on his bare toes. Baffled, Sephiroth stared back.

**1:15**

His attempts to carry on as normal within the unnatural disarray of his quarters was...difficult. Sephiroth had settled on the sofa, a book containing the theoretical essays on materia memory he'd been reading of late in hand. He hadn't wanted to clean up the mess, not yet.

It was not the disorder that bothered him, however, though it rankled a part of himself—the part that liked everything to be in order, for his control to be utter. It was the fact that the chick had decided it was time to play.

It was beyond difficult to read his book with a chocobo chick latched to his pant leg, tugging and yanking with all its might.

**1:19**

The book closed with an audible snap that sent the chick scurrying away. As it peeked around the leg of the coffee table Sephiroth set his book down, stood up, and headed toward the bedroom. The door closed behind him and he heard a soft thump followed by an upset warble as the chick smacked into it.

Surely it would find somewhere to sleep on its own.

Sephiroth headed for the bed, long fingers twisting his hair into an efficient braid.

**1:40**

It had not ceased for a moment. The scratching, the trilling, the chirping at his door. It was a continuous sound, growing more shill and insistent as the minutes ticked by. He lay abed, certain that at any moment the chick would grow weary of its attempts to get attention.

It was a lesson he had learned himself when he was young.

Sephiroth rolled over, closed his eyes, and tried to sleep. The racket, after all, was nothing compared to the sounds of war, or the scream of alarm klaxons.

**1:50**

The chick had fallen quiet. He thought he heard a thump from the living room, but he pushed it aside as nothing of consequence. Sephiroth breathed out and let himself relax.

**2:00**

The noise started again, jolting him out of the doze he had fallen into, and Sephiroth rose. His irritation no longer sat behind a thin veneer of control as he strode toward the door, movements sharp and eyes narrowed. The door opened and he watched the chick stagger as it raised a foot to claw at it again. It chirped in perplexity, then noticed his legs and darted forward immediately to lean against his left ankle.

It would be immensely easy to be done with this entire affair. All Sephiroth had to do was kill the chick. He doubted anyone would even notice. Zack and his protege might eventually.

Sephiroth looked across the room to where he kept Masamune, it wouldn't even take the sword. His attention was diverted a moment later when he noticed the dark mass of his coat on the floor, a depression in the middle of it where the chick had been curled up.

His lips thinned, and Sephiroth nudged the chick out the door again and closed it. Turning on his heel he went back to bed as the noise started again.

**2:30**

Every time he thought the chick had given up no more than ten minutes would pass before it was back outside his door. Sephiroth was not a man who needed much sleep. Highly trained as he was, and with the enhancements he had, he could go longer than a regular human without a wink, and even longer if he managed his cat naps well.

That was not to say he did not enjoy his rest when going without was not necessary.

For the first time in his life since he was a small, small boy, Sephiroth picked up his pillow and pressed it over his head to try and muffle the noise.

**3:20**

Once, Sephiroth's tutor had said, "_At times we must step onto enemy territory and pursue victory on our enemies terms._" As he stared at the glaring acidic green glow of the alarm clock he kept on his bedside table he knew what he must do.

Sephiroth rose once more and prowled toward the door. The chick rejoiced when he stepped out, but he ignored it to stalk across the room to where his coat still lay on the floor. He could hear the patter of tiny claws as the chick followed him.

He pointed at the coat, but the chick perched on his foot instead, leaning against his ankle. Lifting his foot he dumped the chick into the pile of his coat.

"Stay."

The braid he wore thumped on his back as he turned to return to his room...only to stop when he heard the patter of tiny claws following him. Sephiroth breathed out through his nose, slowly, and tried not to think about Angeal's attempts to soothe his and Genesis' volatile temperaments.

**3:26**

Another of his tutor's sayings had been, "_To gain victory we must sometimes give ground._"

It had only taken two tests to prove that as soon as he moved away from the chick it would follow him. So, Sephiroth stayed there. As the chick stood in his coat, Sephiroth loomed over it and watched. After approximately twenty seconds it turned a circle, chirping softly, its small claws pattering on the leather then fold its legs beneath itself and settled down. Another thirty seconds and its beady eyes began to close though it fought it.

A minute later and that long, thin neck dropped. It jolted awake.

It lasted only a further twenty seconds before it was asleep.

Sephiroth turned and left.

**4:15**

When the squalling started again he'd only been asleep for approximately twenty minutes. It was loud, alarmed, and had him sitting bolt upright before he realized what the noise was. Sephiroth felt his impassive expression melting away again. This time, he stormed toward the living room, temper singing high.

The chick immediately pressed itself against his leg when he stepped out. Through the thin material of his sleeping pants he could feel it trembling. He was reminded, sharply, of the way Heidegger had almost kicked it.

Sephiroth's lips thinned.

He blamed it on being half awake when he reached down and picked the chick up and carried it to the sofa where he sat down. Though he sat it on the leather of the sofa beside him, it wasn't long before the chick had found its way into his lap, down pressed against his bare stomach.

Sephiroth turned on the nearby lamp and retrieved his book.

**5:13**

As Midgar transitioned into gloomy day from glowing night, Sephiroth sighed and stood. The chick gave only a faint peep when he set it aside on the sofa. On quiet feet he began to pick up the mess he'd made. He was almost gentle as he scooped up the plant and it's soil, depositing it into a bowl. He'd need to secure a new pot for it.

He was nearly done, just cleaning up the last of the droppings he'd discovered, when he heard a slightly louder and questioning noise. Sephiroth straightened and looked over his shoulder at the bird as it stared at him over the arm of the sofa, following his every move with dark eyes.

Striding to the sofa, he plucked the bird up and carried it into his kitchenette. He deposited the chocobo on the counter and fished out his tea pot to set the water to heating. By the time it was done and Sephiroth sat on one of the stools at his counter, not thinking about the times when Angeal and Genesis had occupied the space, the chick had begun to entertain itself by pecking at the spots on the surface.

Sephiroth held his tea cup between both hands, disheveled bangs wispy around his cheeks and hair escaping from the neat braid he'd folded it into. He considered the chick and, as if sensing his regard, it turned to him with an inquisitive warble.

He inhaled the scent from his tea and said, "Viri." The bird's head quirked, and Sephiroth lifted his cup to his lips and took a drink.

The great Sephiroth, defeated by a chocobo chick. Genesis must be laughing from the grave. He closed his eyes.

Sephiroth may have lost the battle, but he had not yet lost the war. "Today," he said, "you begin your training in earnest."

First on the agenda was calling ShinRa's housing department and ordering new carpeting, after that? Viri needed to learn where bathrooming was and was not appropriate.

He needed to make sure the supplies for the chick were in order as well...something he would take care of personally.

In the end, he would be victorious. He always was.


	2. Texts from Last Night

**Characters:** Zack Fair, Original Characters,  
**Pairings:** Gen  
**Notes:** Takes place around Chapter 11 "Crisis of Countermeasures".

**Summary:** How Jac got Cloud's number.

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**Texts from Last Night by White Mage Koorii  
****[ μ ] – εуλ 0001 (January 22nd - 23rd)**

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**To:** Zack

**Sender:** Sparo

_1/22/0002 22:01_

Hey, Fair. What's Cloud's new number?

**To:** Sparo

**Sender:** Zack

_1/22/0002 22:06_

It's attached. Just don't tell him I gave it to you. He needs to get out more.

ATTACHMENT

**To:** Zack

**Sender:** Sparo

_1/22/0002 22:10_

Thanks. I'm sure Cloud can figure it out on his own.

**To:** Edge

**Sender:** Sparo

_1/22/0002 22:13_

I've got Cloud's number. What are you willing to do to get it?

**To:** Sparo

**Sender:** Edge

_1/22/0002 22:20_

I'll just ask Fair like you did.

**To:** Zack

**Sender:** Edge

_1/22/0002 22:23_

Fair. Can I get Cloud's number as well?

**To:** Cloud

**Sender:** Jac

_1/23/0002 01:33_

Hey Cloud! This is your new number right? Uh, well, I hope so. Anyway, are you free tomorrow? Sparo wanted to see if you wanted to, uh, hang out with us a bit.

**To:** Zack

**Sender:** Edge

_1/23/0002 01:40_

Fair?

**To:** Cloud

**Sender:** Sparo

_1/23/0002 02:10_

Did Jac send you a message? He said he did, but he's pretty flaky. Anyway, are you free tomorrow?

**To:** Sparo

**Sender:** Edge

_1/23/0002 02:30_

He's not responding. What do you want for it?

**To:** Edge

**Sender:** Zack

_1/23/0002 07:05_

Sorry, he took my phone. Here it is.

ATTACHMENT

**To:** Cloud

**Sender:** FWD: Silver Elite

_1/23/0002 07:15_

Sources spotted this unknown blond trooper in a position all of us wish we could be in! Snuggled up under the famed Silver General's black coat! Is this a sign of potential attraction from Sephiroth? You can decide for yourself from this revealing photo!

ATTACHED IMAGE

**To:** Cloud

**Sender:** FWD: Silver Elite

_1/23/0002 07:16_

ShinRa is buzzing over the shocking information that there may be a new player who can battle on Sephiroth's level! As you know, after the disappearance of Sephiroth's close friends no one was thought able to challenge the exalted SOLDIER. Has that changed? Who is the mysterious blond? Check out these shocking photos!

ATTACHED IMAGE


End file.
